Tag Archives: Beginners Music Theory

Want to brush up on your knowledge of the fretboard? Need to know how to relate written music to the notes you play? Then head over to Tom Potts’ handy Ukulele Note Finder tool.

All you need to do is hover over a position on the fretboard & it’ll tell you where else you’ll find notes of the same pitch (ie octave) elsewhere on other strings. Or, if you are looking at a piece of music, go to the bottom of the screen, find the note on the stave you have to identify, & it gives you your various playing options on the fretboard.

In the example below, you can see there are four high Cs (C5) on a standard gCEA-tuned 12 fret instrument. The open C string is an octave lower – C4 / middle C. Use the various search boxes on the right hand side of the PLUC site pages to look up more articles, tools & tips from us about very basic understanding of music, notes & fretboards if this is all unfamiliar to you!

Uke Nut is an interesting blog, covering various ukulele resources, including links to a selection of fingerstyle tunes & practice drills. Amongst the instructional postings are some links to a useful site of tools – MusicTheory.net.

Uke Nut has customised the Fretboard Memorisation Tool for a standard gCEA-tuned uke. Use it to practice identifying the notes up to the 10th fret. This will help you develop your skills, including helping you form moveable chords more readily.

There are so many online learning resources out there, it’s difficult to know where to start! One of the interesting sources is TED-Ed, who create ‘lessons worth sharing’. They produce fun & informative videos & lectures on numerous topics. Here are three for you to view for starters. Read the rest of this entry »

Here’s a fascinating stop-frame animated YouTube from Vi Hart talking about how musical notes are made up of different frequencies. It uses an unfretted instrument (viola) to show how you can work out where along the fingerboard the different notes appear, so you can see how this translates to the uke & why the frets are where they are. Read the rest of this entry »

If you fancy improving your skills with some free online courses, do have a look at Coursera. They offer video lessons from lecturers at universities & colleges around the world; you’re assessed by answering quizzes & submitting assignments. There’s no need to pay for the certificates (which are meaningless, as they aren’t recognised qualfications), just enjoy learning & enhancing your skills.

They cover a huge variety of subjects and have some very interesting music topics. A six-week Songwriting course has just started if you’re interested & quick off the mark (or you can opt to be informed when the future sessions are held). Others currently available or in the pipeline include music theory; history of western music; classical music; history of rock; appreciations of The Beatles & Rolling Stones; the American South (which includes roots music & the blues); world music; rehearsing musical ensembles; musical sounds/electronics & several more.